Top Jamaican Entrepreneur to Present CIN Lecture

Outstanding Jamaican entrepreneur, Lowell Hawthorne, OD, Founder/President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill in New York, has been tapped to present the keynote address at the 2008 Caribbean International Network (CIN) Lecture Series on Wednesday, November 12.
The event will begin at 6:00 p.m, at the Schomberg Centre for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Harlem), Upper Manhattan.
Profiled in news and lifestyle magazines and trade publications as a ‘young, outstanding Jamaican entrepreneur,’ Mr. Hawthorne will speak on, ‘Entrepreneurship – the Key to Unlocking Financial Wealth,’ drawing from a wealth of experience and a solid record of achievement both as an accountant and a businessman.
Moving from a restaurant in the predominantly Caribbean enclave in the North Bronx, New York City in 1989, the Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill now has more than 100 independently operated stores in nine states along the eastern seaboard, becoming the gold standard of the migrant community.
Mr. Hawthorne’s address is expected to resonate with young, aspiring business interests. He was recognised by the Government of Jamaica with the national honour of Order of Distinction (OD), in 2006.
A graduate of Oberlin High School and Grantham College, Jamaica, Hawthorne moved to the USA in 1981 and took a job with the New York Police Department (NYPD) while studying at Baruch and Lehman Colleges of the City University of New York.
With the help of a close-knit, enterprising family, he soon decided to replicate the family business from ‘back home in St. Mary’, selling bread, bun and pastries to anyone who cared to buy, and promising to share the taste of the Caribbean with every neighbourhood in the USA.
Stephen Hill, citing the success of his television programming and the lecture series, told JIS News New York that for the next several years, the annual lecture series, which debuted in 2004, “will showcase successful Caribbean entrepreneurs who have built their own business empires.”
Previous CIN Lecture series presenters include: Professor Rex Nettleford, Vice Chancellor Emeritus, University of the West Indies (UWI); Professor Robert Hill and former Jamaican Prime Ministers, Edward Seaga and P.J. Patterson.